This Way To Shadowland
by Vegetes
Summary: Dib gains certain powers from an accident, and travels to a horrible land. WARNING: Blood, Gore, Stuff like that. -- Vegetes
1. The Therapist

"I see dead people?"  
  
I smirked and looked at the lady across from me, she had blue hair that she kept up in high ponytails, despite her age, which was about 20 or so.  
  
She was also my therapist, not that I needed one, I wasn't crazy.  
  
I nodded, "I guess you could put it that way...but not quite. They were dead....but they weren't people..."  
  
"What were they, then?" She asked, as she scribbled down on her little "Look at me, I'm qualified to send you to the loony-bin" notebook.  
  
"I guess the only way to put it would be monsters..."  
  
She nodded and continued to write. I took the time to look around the room. It was a fairly nice room, peach colored carpet, white walls, there was a couch over in the corner, but the thing i was sitting on was a nice chair, upholstered with black leather.  
  
I had pulled it up to face the lady, I preferred to sit and be able to look at the other person easily.  
  
It took me a moment before I realized she was waiting for me to answer a question I had missed.  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
She frowned a bit at not being heard the first time, "Where did you encounter these...monsters?"  
  
"Shadowland." I replied.  
  
"And how could one get to Shadowland?"  
  
"Forward, Right, Sideways."  
  
It was her turn to be confused, "Excuse me?"  
  
"Forward, Right, Sideways." I said more clearly.  
  
"I'm afraid I don't understand..."  
  
"That's how you have to step..."  
  
She blinked a few times and stood up, setting her notebook and pen down on her chair. I watched as she took one step forward, one to the right, and then another to the right.  
  
I shook my head, "You only moved, you're not STEPPING."  
  
She was obviously confused, and a bit irritated because she sat down again, picking up her things before she did so.  
  
"Well how is someone supposed to step sideways?"  
  
"It's easy if you know..."  
  
She sighed. "Moving on...How did you first get to Shadowland?"  
  
"I'll tell you about it, but it's quite a long story..."  
  
She looked at her watch. "We have time."  
  
I nodded and began my story. 


	2. The Accident

SCREECH!!!  
  
"Dib! You moron, be careful!"  
  
I laughed nervously as my sister yelled at me, I had almost rammed our pickup into the car ahead of us. She sighed and slumped down in her seat, glaring at me.  
  
"Understand this, the only reason I'm letting you drive me is because you're the only one who owns his own car, and because I NEED those game cartridges, got it?"  
  
I nodded, trying not to laugh. That was my sister, she'd so anything for her Gameslave.  
  
Even risk being near me, sometimes I'd wish we were closer but oh well, I had to be happy with things the way they were, I suppose.  
  
I turned on the radio to my favorite station, DBR, Drunken Boxing Radio.  
  
"He stumbles backwards..." The radio blared, "And it's a hit, that has GOT to hurt!"  
  
I threw my fist into the air and shouted, "Yessss!!!"  
  
Gaz rolled her eyes and switched the radio to her favorite station, KTAN, Kill Them All Now.  
  
"How bout we listen to something good for a change?" She said, as the station started to blast out "Let the Bodies Hit the Floor."  
  
"Yeah," I replied, "THIS sure is good..." I sighed as my sister started to air guitar. "We're listening to DBR." And I switched the radio back.  
  
"No...KTAN." Switch went the radio.  
  
"DBR!" Switch.  
  
"KTAN!" Switch.  
  
"DBR!" Switch.  
  
"WATCH OUT!!"  
  
I blinked, "What channel is that o--" A sound like smashing glass and screams suddenly echoed in my ears and I was filled with an odd floating sensation, like everything was now going in slow motion.  
  
I felt sharp pain all over my body and could feel myself smashing through something hard, that seemed like glass. I couldn't see very well anymore, I supposed I had my eyes shut.  
  
I screamed when I connected with something hard and scratchy, I slid a bit and could feel the skin just ripping off, along with rocks cutting through my bare flesh. I heard bones snap and pain shot through my body from places I didn't even know I had. I finally stopped sliding and just kinda laid there, I could hear people around me, running and screaming but nothing registered very well.  
  
I opened my eyes as I felt someone pick me up very gently, I looked up at the man, he was wearing a white coat with some sort of red cross on the pocket. I shook my head but suddenly stopped because it made the pain worse.  
  
Then I heard something that made my blood run cold.  
  
"Tom! She's dead, we couldn't save her....yeah, the little girl who was in the car as well."  
  
Suddenly all my pain left me, I wriggled out of the man's grasp, ignoring everything accept the determination to find Gaz. She couldn't be dead, I wasn't going to let that happen.  
  
I looked around, pushing away everyone who tried to grab me and take me towards the ambulance. I spotted another group of the men in white coats, surrounding a girl in a purple dress. I gripped my shoulder to realize the part of my bone was actually sticking out of my shoulder. I bit my lip and started limping toward her.  
  
But then something weird happened, it was if I didn't have control of my body anymore, I took a step forward, then right, then sideways, not right again but SIDEWAYS. I couldn't explain it.  
  
I blinked as everything around me changed, I was met with one of the most horrible sights I had ever seen...  
  
"Excuse me, Mr. Membrane?"  
  
I looked up from the floor, and unclenched my hands to notice that my knuckles had turned white.  
  
"Y-Yes?"  
  
"I really wasn't expecting your story to be so long....we've run out of time..."  
  
"Oh...yes, of coarse....Shall I come back tomorrow?"  
  
She nodded, "Same time, and we'll continue this."  
  
I nodded too and picked up my things, shook hands with the lady, and then walked out the door. 


	3. Close Encounter

It was raining outside, and me without my umbrella. Oh well, I didn't really care, what was a little water anyway?  
  
I walked down the street, my hands in my trench coat pockets. I had gotten a new trench coat since I had outgrown my old one a lot. I was 19 now.  
  
I still lived in my father's house, but I pretty much had it all to myself. I didn't have a job yet and was never really up to getting one.  
  
At least not now.  
  
I was walking along in my own thoughts when I saw a mugger across the street, he had a ski-mask on and he had a gun pointed at a young couple, who looked positively terrified.  
  
I diverted my gaze away from them, and continued on back to my house. The guy'd get it in Shadowland anyway...  
  
"Why didn't you stop him?"  
  
I looked up at my therapist, she was talking about what happened last night, the mugger.  
  
"There really wasn't anything I could do....and that guy'll end up in Shadowland, which is much worse..."  
  
She sighed, "Still..." She didn't finish the sentence though, and I figured she had dropped the subject.  
  
I stared at her, waiting for her to make the next move.  
  
She blinked..."Anyways, you never did finish your story..."  
  
"Oh...sure."  
  
I looked around, my eyes wide in shock and terror. I wasn't at the scene of the accident anymore...well...I was, really. It was the same street, the buildings were all the same but everything was....night. There wasn't any sun, all there was was the moon and some strange neon signs written in some odd language.  
  
I frowned and rubbed my shoulder, then stopped when I realized that I wasn't hurt anymore. I looked myself over and it was if the accident had never happened at all.  
  
Then I heard a low hissing sound behind me and turned around.  
  
When I saw what was there, I screamed.  
  
It was almost impossible to explain, this creature. It crawled on its belly like a lizard, but it had no lower body at all. All it was was a torso and arms along with a head, If you could even call it a head. It had a wide mouth, full of sharp teeth, maybe 6 inches long, all sticking straight out. There was a long tongue protruding from the ghastly opening and the thing was drooling all over. I could see it's two black eyes staring hungrily at me from underneath a mess of oily black hair. The hands...claws....had 8 fingers, fingernails as long as my forearm, I could see the dirt and grime and blood underneath them. The part where the lower body should have connected with the torso was just blood and skin and bones.  
  
It dragged itself closer to me, pulling itself along by its fingernails.  
  
"You look tashty..." It hissed, that long tongue flicking out at me.  
  
I took several steps backwards as the monster advanced toward me. My foot hit something soft and I heard a yelp of pain about 1 foot away.  
  
"Watch it!" The voice yelled.  
  
I looked to my right and almost screamed again. It was another monster, different this time. It had two heads and flat teeth, a long tail and 3 arms with sharp claws. The thing picked up its tail, what I assumed I had stepped on, and scampered off into an alley.  
  
I looked around and for the first time, noticed all the creatures around me, slinking around in the shadows and staring at me with glowing eyes from crevices I never wanted to explore.  
  
I could even see flying ones in the sky, circling overhead me.  
  
I was brought back to my dilemma, however, when I felt a tongue sliding slowly up and down my ankle. I jumped and took more steps backward.  
  
"You ARE tashty..." It hissed again, "I think I jusht found my lunch!" It grinned and leapt towards me, it's mouth open and those horrible teeth aiming straight for my neck.  
  
Beeeeeeep.  
  
"I'm sorry sir....we'll have to continue this another time..."  
  
I nodded and didn't say a thing more, eager to get out of there and to return home for a needed rest. 


	4. The Coffee Shop

The next afternoon, I once again found myself in the office of my therapist, I keept forgetting to ask her name again so I could memorize it. It was a nice day out, and I wished it would rain some more.  
  
"Would you?"  
  
"Huh?" I looked at her; my mind had a nasty habit of wandering off in the most inappropriate times.  
  
She sighed, "I asked you if you'd like to go out for coffee this time instead of staying in my office..."  
  
"Oh, sure, it sounds nice..."  
  
We left the office and I was greeted by a warm, happy day.  
  
I hated warm happy days.  
  
We ended up going to this place I had never been to before. Some place called "Miramar Café." It looked like a teenager sort of place with loud music and when we went in there, sure enough, there were a bunch of kids, mostly punk/goths with bright hair colors and black clothing.  
  
I didn't look too out of place because of my trench coat...but the lady with blue hair and a pink summer dress...well I kept wondering why she brought me here, of all places.  
  
She waved at a few people as we walked by and she led me over to deserted corner, to a booth. We sat and waited.  
  
A waitress came over about 2 minutes later, she had high blonde ponytails so long that they dragged on the floor, and two strips of blue hair that hung down at the sides of her face.  
  
"What'll ya have?" She asked us, in a bored voice.  
  
"I'll take a cup of coffee, black, cream and sugar, and a chocolate chip cookie place." My therapist said.  
  
"And you?" The waitress turned to me.  
  
"Uh...I'll take the Strawberry Shortcake and a Cherry Espresso, please."  
  
She walked off.  
  
"Why'd you bring me here?" I asked.  
  
"Change of scenery..."  
  
I shrugged.  
  
"Anyways...go on."  
  
I shut my eyes tight and brought my hands up to my face, not expecting any sort of defense to work but trying it none the less.  
  
Suddenly I felt myself splattered with some warm wet stuff of some sort. I opened my eyes and looked. It was...  
  
"Blood!" I yelled, wiping the liquid off my face, I was covered in head to toe with it.  
  
"You okay kid?!" A voice not too far away called.  
  
I looked at the owner of the voice, it was another guy, human, at least. He was covered in blood as well and was holding an axe.  
  
I looked at the floor and tried desperately to hold my lunch down when I saw the bloody remains of the attacking monster everywhere.  
  
Suddenly the remains started to move and regroup, the blood on me slid off and down onto the floor.  
  
That sure was an odd sensation.  
  
"Let's get a move on!" The guy grabbed my arm and started to run, I stumbled and tried to keep up with him, he was a lot faster than me.  
  
He led me down an alley, then right, then left, then right again. I tried to keep track of the directions we were going but couldn't keep count after our 5th left turn. I was starting to get tired and debated stopping for a while, I didn't even know if I could trust this guy!  
  
"What was his name?"  
  
I jumped at the voice behind me, I looked and the same waitress was there, leaning against the back of the booth and listening in. She had a silver tray with our order on it, balanced on her hand.  
  
I glared at her, "Do you mind?"  
  
She nodded and sat down beside me, making me scoot over to give her room. She set our orders in front of us then leaned back and looked at me, obviously expecting me to continue.  
  
I looked at my therapist, "Can we go?" Christ, was I mad.  
  
She looked at the waitress and made a motion with her head, "Move it V."  
  
"V" Got up and glared at us, turning on her heels and walking away muttering.  
  
"Sorry about that...continue."  
  
I didn't really want to anymore, but I nodded just the same.  
  
The thing that kept me running, however, was when I looked back and could see several monsters following us. It seemed that they could be quite fast when they wanted.  
  
I yelped and sped up to run right beside the other guy, we ran a bit more and then stopped in front of a large building, it had a small stream of water in front of it.  
  
The guy jumped over the stream and I did the same, following him when he ran into the building. I squatted down and put my hands on my knees, panting, while the guy put a large bar over the door.  
  
"Not finished yet....come on." And he headed for a large flight of stairs.  
  
I sighed and started to follow him, feeling my legs beginning to cramp up to make matters worse.  
  
This HAD to have been the longest flight of stairs ever, or maybe it just felt like it because I was so tired.  
  
We eventually got to the top and I found myself in some sort of room, there was a dead campfire in the middle and a hole in the roof for the smoke to go out. There were several different blades hanging on the walls and shelves with sets of jars on them.  
  
I spotted a bed over in the corner and, without even asking, rushed over to it and fell fast asleep.  
  
I finished off my espresso and my desert and got up, stretching.  
  
"Shall we meet here tomorrow?" She asked.  
  
I frowned, "I don't really like this place...can't we meet at your office."  
  
She hesitated, "Alright, same time at my office then."  
  
We left, and as I walked out the door I could see V over in the corner, glaring at me. 


	5. Explanation

Another day of therapy, I was kinda getting bored with it all, just sitting there and telling this story while that lady scribbled down in her stupid notebook. I guess I didn't have much of a choice though, I needed to be diagnosed to stop therapy, and I had to tell anything and everything to be diagnosed.  
  
I honestly couldn't wait till it was over.  
  
"How was your day, Mr. Membrane?"  
  
"It was alright..." I said as I hung up my wet coat on the rack by the door. I was glad that it was raining again.  
  
I pulled up a chair in front of the lady and sat down in it, resting my elbows on my knees.  
  
She nodded, a motion for me to continue with my story.  
  
I woke up the next morning to the smell of food, and I was starving, to say the least. I looked around for the source of the smell and found my rescuer sitting in front of the campfire, a nice fire going and some sort of pot sitting in the flames.  
  
I crawled over to him and he didn't look up, he just kept a watch on the food.  
  
After a few moments I spoke up, "What's for lunch...?"  
  
"I'm not sure, really." He replied.  
  
"What do you mean you're not sure."  
  
"I'm not sure I could classify those creatures out there into any type of species..."  
  
I gulped and stared at the pot, "You mean....that....is from one of those....things, out there?"  
  
He nodded and I made a sound of disgust, "How do you expect me to eat something like that?!"  
  
"It's either this...or...uh...this." He chuckled lightly, and I didn't see anything funny.  
  
I shook my head, "I'll call you when I'm near death....maybe not even then."  
  
He shrugged, "More for me."  
  
Nothing else was said for a few moments, and the only sound in the room was the crackling of the fire and the hungry growling of my stomach. I really was starving...  
  
I looked at him, then at the pot..."Still feel like sharing?"  
  
He laughed a bit, "Of coarse....but don't expect much difference in the meals over the course of time." He took the pot off the fire and opened it up, using some sort of homemade oven mitt. Inside were strips of brown meat in a bubbling liquid. I shuddered.  
  
He spooned the food onto paper plates and passed them to me. I stared down at the plate and frowned.  
  
"Not your favorite food, I'm guessing."  
  
"No it's not that it's just....where'd you get all this?"  
  
"I transferred it over from the real world, I've been here maybe two years."  
  
I almost choked on my food, "You stay here WILLINGLY?"  
  
"I bet you're glad I did..."  
  
"Well...yeah...but why did you?"  
  
"Well...one day, something happened to me. I was about 17 and I had been on a date with my girl, when we were attacked by about 3 or 4 muggers. My girl ended up getting killed, and I was about to meet the same fate when...I'm not sure how to explain it....but I went forward, right, then sideways. And I found myself here. Unlike you, there was no one else to save me, so I had to fend for myself. When I found out a way to get back, I thought 'Hey, I'm probly not the only person this has, or will happen to that'll be as lucky as me, I don't have much back there, I'll stay and see what I can do! So I just transferred minor possessions back here, and...that's that."  
  
I stirred the food around on my plate with my fork, not sure what to say. I considered apologizing but then another question came to my mind.  
  
"What are those things...?"  
  
He sighed, "I'm not quite sure myself, I've talked to other people who've been here, some willingly, some not, and some of us think they're just normal monsters. But I have a different theory, I think those are the spirits of the people in the real world, the bad ones. Like...if you're really evil you'll turn up as a monster in this place..."  
  
"So it's basically hell?"  
  
"Possibly."  
  
"I thought hell was supposed to be all fire and brimstone, little red guys poking you with forks?"  
  
He smiled, "You'd think that. But wouldn't it be horrible to become one of these, having to live with yourself. Here the good isn't brought out, just the bad..."  
  
"I guess so....yes, but if it's so bad wouldn't they just kill themselves?"  
  
He shook his head, "Here there's no such thing as death, if one thing is killed it just comes back 5 minuets later. The thing is they don't know that though, they fight as if their lives were on the line, and to them they are. Us, however...since we don't naturally belong here, we can die..."  
  
I sighed, this was all too much...  
  
"This may be a stupid question...but why do they fight?"  
  
"Territory and food mostly."  
  
"I can understand the territory, but why food? It doesn't look as if anything food related could grow in this place..."  
  
"It can't, the only source of food is other monsters. That's why they fight. To them if you don't kill the other monster you die, and if you succeed you get to eat. Of coarse I could all be totally wrong about this, I've been watching them, though..."  
  
"This place is horrible..."  
  
"You get used to it after a while."  
  
"But I don't want to..."  
  
"Don't worry...I'll help you get back..."  
  
"...Thank you."  
  
He nodded.  
  
"You didn't get his name?" My therapist asked me.  
  
"Not right then...I know it, but I'll tell you it tomorrow, same time?"  
  
She nodded. 


End file.
